It's sometimes thought that awakening from pain and suffering is going to some other realm, a realm of eternal bliss somewhere or a realm of continuous joy here. But that's not my understanding of it.
We all have access to that awakened place all the time because it's simply that vulnerable, tender place inside us. And it's always there.
And the good news is, it's just as accessible from pain and suffering as from joy and gladness. It's just that soft, open, tender place inside.
We can open to that place of tenderness this very moment from a place of despair or loneliness or feeling out-of-place. We just open to a place of feeling tender towards those emotions and ourselves.
Or we might be feeling on top of the world, everything's going our way. By itself this has nothing to do with awakening, but again we can open to that tender place inside, the place that falls down in gratitude, and compassion for the pain of others.
Either way makes no difference. We can open to our already-awakened state when we surrender to our eternal tenderness, the place inside where we feel tender, open, compassionate towards whatever being or situation or thought or feeling is showing up.
That place of tenderness is enlightenment itself, because in the moment of being in touch with that we cling to nothing, know nothing, least of all any ideas about how things are or aren't.
We're just totally willing to go with uncertainty into the next moment, and the next, and the next. That tenderness can be showing up as gratitude, openness, isolation, anxiety, sadness, it doesn't matter. All that matters is opening to it. And finding that tender opening to the sadness, resentment or whatever is actually heaven itself, here and now, in the ordinary moments of life.
—jim sloman, for 9/21/01
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